CCCC board approves bid for network infrastructure

A bid from Envision Technology Group for a network infrastructure project was approved by the Cloud County Community College board of trustees during a special meeting on Friday.
Cloud County Community College (CCCC) received two bids for the project, which includes installation of CAT 6 cable and fiber optic cable throughout the buildings on the main campus plus at the tech west building and connections to the T-Birds Village area.
Envision Technology Group, Overland Park, submitted the low bid of $389,916.
Payment for the project will come from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund III (HEERF III) that was authorized by the American Rescue Plan.
HEERF III provides support to institutions of higher education to serve students and ensure learning continues during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Information presented to the CCCC board by Caesar Wood, vice president for administrative services, stated that the infrastructure project supports functions essential to the college operations such as admissions, advising, financial aid, student records, human resources and accounting operations.
Wood reported the project will improve performance and update the technology infrastructure of the college to support its mission to educate students.
Also during the meeting, the board approved the purchase of seven servers from ConvergeOne in the amount of $106,429.71 and to authorize payment from the HEERF III funds.
The servers will be purchased under an existing state of Kansas contract. It includes a five-year warranty and technical support with Dell's Enterprise support coverage.
The board also approved the hiring of Kevin Lutes as the network administrator, a full-time KPERS-covered position.
Lutes, who replaces Jason Pelkey, is currently working as the Life Sciences Glovebox facility operations team leader at Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville, Ala.